I'm a foreigner!

 this is a celebration pagoda, used for New Year's Eve celebrations

my homestay dad told me that this must be a funeral.  the white dresses are a sign of mourning.  they must wear these for three days when a loved one passes away.

Yesterday, I took the subway to a enormous bookstore to try to find a text for my class of a little older children.  The administrator wants me to teach conversational English, not so much grammar.  They actually have books for that...who knew?  I spent literally hours poring over these books.  Some of the books were in Korean, with a few English words.  Some are structure mainly for CD listening.  After spending a lot of time in the section with Korean texts, some English, I wandered toward the register to checkout.  On my way, I passed the "Foreign Book" section.  Ahhh, English books.  I found what I was looking for in the Foreign Book Section.  So funny to think of myself as a foreigner. 


My cousin, Audrey, who is an ESL teacher, recommended that I find one that teaches plurals with -s endings, and past tenses with -ed endings.  At dinner I explained to my homestay family what I was looking for and they told me that in Korean, plural words do not have -s endings, and sometimes words are inferred plural because of the words used prior (i.e., many book).  


So I took advantage of being in a new area to wander around.  There are huge shopping areas everywhere, and this area was no exception.  It's called Insadong.  The shops were nice though, nice ceramics, nice handmade paper (hanjim), beautiful jewelry.  The one thing that is plentiful and very poor quality is shoes.  There was a truck parked at the end of one block that had shoes displayed,  It looked like a "roach coach" turned shoe store.  As I was looking closer, I realized they were brand name knock-offs.  They had Addida shoes--with the three stripes, but spelled slightly wrong!  lol


On my way back to the subway (still carrying a bag full of books...my shoulder wasn't very happy), I passed by a buddhist temple.  People were coming and going and I could hear chanting.  I wandered over, removed my shoes before entering the building (of course), and went inside.  It was mostly women.  There is a place to get a cushion to kneel on and most people had one.  I was going to be there briefly, so I just knelt on the floor.  At the front of the room were three large gold buddahs.  The ceiling was covered with what looked like paper flowers...what a beautiful room.  I took my pictures, hoping not to offend people, and then quickly exited.  The monks all wear gray traditional Korean garb.  I passed many shops selling these gray hanboks (the K is silent...pronounced han bow).

the shoes outside the temple

the temple

inside the temple

ceiling of the temple

smiling buddah (the one on the right)

Food of the Day:  I had nothing too exotic today, but finally gave in and got a Dunkin Donut...it was calling my name.  Korea has nearly every American restaurant chain you can imagine.  On the DMZ tour, at one of the stops, there was a Popeye's.  There are all the Yum Brand stores (KFC, Pizza Hut, although I haven't seen any Taco Bells).  There are TGIFridays (looks like kids and families like that one), Outback Steakhouse, 7-11 (I know it's not a restaurant, but an American name, nonetheless).  


Yesterday, I was sure it was Friday when I woke up.  Alas, today is Friday.  My homestay mom, Angela, said we might be able to go to Wonju this weekend.  It's about an hour drive.  I'm excited about to see the city of my birth.  I showed her pictures of Wonju that my dad took back in the day, and she said those buildings probably don't exist anymore.  Wonju is a big, new, modern city now.  That would be awesome if we could find even one of those old buildings.  We'll see.